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Most of my customers don't want to mess with them, don't want the dirt & grunge in their washers, etc. Or they don't know how to fix them if that's what they need. I might add, I'm not terribly expensive, so that helps a lot.

I have a big old washer just for horse stuff.I throw saddle pads and bandages in there. Coolers/fleeces/stable rugs too. I send the waterproof rugs out to get done- they come back re-waterproofed, which is what I want.

Washing blankets is the fugliest job on earth--if you've got the equipment and patience to do it, more power to you! I'm more than happy to outsource it to a professional blanket cleaning service, and they come back washed, repaired, re-waterproofed and bagged good to go for Fall. Priceless!

I rarely blanket so my midweight winter blankets and turnouts don't get really grungy.
If they did, I'd hose off the worst before washing them at home.

When I bought the farm an old W/D combo came with it.
I brought my much newer washer from my house in the city and intended to keep the old machine for horse laundry.
But it is setup to drain into the sink and sometimes the hose goes wild and ends up on the floor.
So I now use my washer for blankets and nothing has suffered after almost 10yrs.
I'll run a load of barn towels through after the blankets to pick up any stray horsehair or smells and that seems to be working.

Blankets do get clean, but drying them in my machine takes 4-EVER, so I generally hang them damp from the spin cycle on lines in the basement and they dry in a couple days, get folded and put away.

It's been a couple of years at least since I used a horse laundry service. I recently sent blankets out for washing and waterproofing, and about died at the cost. $13 to wash, $13 to waterproof with Nikwax. They charged the same for a heavy turnout or a rain sheet. $26 per blanket. Plus repair costs at $12 per rip. Stable blanket wash, $13 each, regardless of weight. I sent out horsie's full wardrobe, and ended up with a bill bigger than a month's worth of dressage lessons. Is this normal for blanket service?

I wash my own stuff in the wash rack with a high pressure hose then hang them out to dry. most places in my area charge so much for washing blankets that after 2 washings you might as well just buy a new blanket. It's ridiculous.

I wash my own stuff in the wash rack with a high pressure hose then hang them out to dry. most places in my area charge so much for washing blankets that after 2 washings you might as well just buy a new blanket. It's ridiculous.

That's what I do too! Hang them over the fence and power wash, turn them over and power wash the inside. Then let them air dry. Even the dirtiest ones get pretty clean and they do not lose their waterproofing with just water... as you can see when you do the outside. The inside is still bone dry!

If repair is needed, I will take it to my favourite mennonite tack store and for $10, it will be repaired!

My husband will not let me put any horse related item in our washer (that he knows of... but I would not do blankets anyway).

Saddlepads, light sheets/blankets I do myself, heavier turn-outs we send out -as often they need repair as well as cleaning & waterproofing. One person we send out to will give a barn discount - so my barn sends all the blankets out together for cleaning & repair...

I wash and dry myself.
Didn't get a chance to wash my blankets this summer and pack away, and now we're starting to blanket at night already.
If we get another week or two of hot weather, I'll wash and dry, and reproof them and then put them away until the icky weather returns.

Our local Laundromat has a ginormous washer just for horse laundry. $7.50 and it washes 2 heavy blankets nice and clean. Saddle pads and light sheets I do at home, and I always re-waterproof the blankets.